What’s the story?
Though Raw is the flagship show of WWE, fans have been pretty vocal about how SmackDown Live is superior to it, in terms of quality. The fact that fans prefer SmackDown over Raw is further established by a recent discovery revealed by professional wrestling journalist, Dave Meltzer.
On the recent edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, Meltzer claimed that Smackdown beat Raw in the live shows in the first two months of 2017.
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In case you didn’t know...
WWE’s main roster was split to provide opportunities to Superstars of both, Raw and SmackDown. After the brand split, SmackDown became SmackDown Live and significance was restored to the Tuesday nights. Not only did SmackDown become a show with a purpose but it also became a fan favourite.
SmackDown Live created history in December of 2016 when it beat Raw in TV ratings. Before the 27th December episode, which featured a WWE Championship match and the return of John Cena, SmackDown had never topped Raw in TV ratings.
The heart of the matter
Dave Meltzer stated that he surveyed the business done by both brands’ house shows in January and February and found out that SmackDown is doing better than Raw.
He gives a lot of credit to John Cena as he says that the SmackDown live events were going ‘rough’ before he made his return. Since the leader of the Cenation has arrived, Raw has failed to draw better revenue from live events than SmackDown Live.
What’s next?
Meltzer said that it will be interesting to see if SmackDown Live will do the same kind of business post-WrestleMania. After the Show of Shows is over, Cena will take a break from wrestling to shoot for his movie, The Pact.
As Meltzer claimed that the major cause of the current success experienced by SmackDown’s live shows is Cena’s presence, it is expected that the numbers will vary after Cena goes on leave.
Author’s take
SmackDown Live has been the better show of the two brands. They devote more television time to character development and try to extract as much as possible out of each storyline. Moreover, the blue brand gives more space for the growth of new Superstars, which is deeply appreciated by fans.
Raw is the flagship show of the WWE which is 3 hours long. Not only it is difficult to watch a program as it goes on for so long but the content that Raw produces doesn’t excite many.
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